


i'll fly away

by adrestiandove



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Azure Moon - Freeform, Gen, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22392766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrestiandove/pseuds/adrestiandove
Summary: He has the gall to reach out his hand.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 33





	i'll fly away

My wretched body folds back in on itself, shrinks in shame. Small, smaller, smallest. And I feel so very small again. Not even this was enough. That’s the worst of it. All that pain, all that blood; I died again and again until there was no El left and it still wasn’t enough.

This might be defeat, a distant part of me realizes, but I can’t let myself get too close to that notion just yet. Defeat is the one thing I have not planned for. To plan for it would feel almost as if inviting it—a self-fulfilling prophecy. No, there can be no compromises. What would there be left in this world for Edelgard von Hresvelg? Or, what would be left of her? I left that little girl behind when I started on this path and I will walk the husk of me off the edge of this cliff because there’s no going back to her after all this. I knew it when I set out.

_Of course, I understand that sacrifice is inevitable..._

I knew the path would be bloody and I knew—I know how many bodies must be strewn across the streets of Enbarr right now. I know Hubert is dead. Or perhaps dying still. Dying for me. Bleeding out slowly and still putting his last little shred of faith in me. It would be an insult to surrender now when he gave himself so fully to the belief that I could—

—that I can. It’s not over yet. I can’t let myself think it is, or then I truly have already lost.

I take a breath, steel myself.

_If they're going to surrender after being defeated anyway, why raise a weapon in the first place?_

He has the gall to reach out his hand.

It feels almost like a joke. An insult. Patronizing. As if lost little El has gone astray and he’s going to lead her back home. How delusional.

_The Edelgard who shed tears died many years ago._

My grip on the dagger tightens and I lunge forward, tumbling off the edge of that cliff, and I foolishly let myself wonder if it’s possible, at the very last moment, to grow wings.

**Author's Note:**

> idk, i was thinking of the last cutscene in AM and my brain just horked this up! i played CF first, so when i got to this point in the game i had a lot of feelings about edelgard's motivations in this scene (or how i read them, anyway), particularly based on some of the monastery lines she has in CF.


End file.
